


Candles Lighting up the Darkness

by tatersalad5001



Series: For Our Dreams [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Crushes, Depression, First Dates, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Mild Language, Mind Control, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Possible Past Death is discussed but no one actually died, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slice of Life, attending school concerts and other extreme sports, background employee of sol technologies, background knights of hanoi, background revolver and background windy, i don't think anything here's....that much worse than vrains itself but be safe!, suicide ideation, there's an au where the ignis are cats, vrainsrarepairweeks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-09-25 03:45:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17113856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatersalad5001/pseuds/tatersalad5001
Summary: "For many reasons, I prefer to work alone," Playmaker stated. "Kusanagi's the obvious exception, his work and his help is invaluable. But... I don't think I'd mind taking on trouble in Vrains with a partner like you. You're good. And besides that..." Playmaker looked away. "Dueling on the same side as you...felt nice.""I like working with you, too. It's probably the first thing in my life that's felt right in years," Soulburner told him.Playmaker smiled.(writings for prompts for the Vrains Rarepair Weeks event!)





	1. Domestic

**Author's Note:**

> hey! so, this is gonna have everything i'm writing for the vrains rarepair weeks event. this first chapter is just gonna be the first one, but multiple ones will be combined in future chapters to sort of...condense everything, i suppose. if you read Fusion Charge for ygotober, this will largely be set up the same way! chapters will be posted here on the day of the last prompt in the chapter, but i'll also be posting [on tumblr](http://datanamines.tumblr.com/tagged/vrainsrarepairweeks) each day! Prompt list can be found [here](http://vrainsrarepairweeks.tumblr.com/post/178133853544)! essentially, i'm writing one little thing for each day...only doing one of the prompts for each day. it'll at least be most days, if not all them. this is a little early, but i wanted to make sure i had an ao3 link for tumblr as well as a tumblr link for ao3, other prompts won't be ahead.
> 
> i didn't really need to stick to one ship for this. and this is by no means the only good vrains ship, the only vrains ship i like. out of the rarepairs, hotdogshipping? also good. aoi/miyu? also good. among others. but lately the yusaku/takeru, the firestormshipping, the....why couldn't we have called it soulmakershipping, it's been hitting me real hard. and like, pretty much every episode that has both yusaku and takeru in them makes it even stronger. i...couldn't resist. (episode 82!!!) so enjoy the two weeks of firestormshipping content.
> 
> as of today, i'm almost a full week ahead, but that could easily change, considering that this week's christmas... which is largely why i'm so ahead in the first place. if i fall behind, i'll do my best to catch up! thank you so much for reading, and i hope you enjoy!
> 
> Day 1: **Domestic** / ~~Adventure~~
> 
> edit: 12/28/18: should probably move the rating up to a t so i've done that. this is now rated t.

"Hey, Yusaku, can you help me out with something?" Takeru called out from his spot on his desk, computer open in front of him.

"Huh?" Yusaku looked up from his own computer. He was sprawled out in a nearby chair, computer sitting on his lap. "Oh, sure." He sat down his laptop, stood up, and walked over to the desk. "What's up?"

"I'm trying to work on this report," Takeru told him. "But whenever I do, what I type doesn't appear on the screen. See?" He pointed to the screen on his laptop. Yusaku leaned over Takeru's shoulder as Takeru pressed a few random letter keys on his keyboard, but no letters appeared on his screen. A large portion of the document file he had open remained blank. "They don't show up."

"Let me try," Yusaku said. He reached around Takeru so that he could use the laptop. After clicking a few different windows, ending back on the file Takeru was working on, he pressed a few letter keys. Nothing new appeared on the screen, but... "The cursor moved."

"Oh? I guess it did," Takeru confirmed as he looked at the cursor's current position. "Then I don't know why it..."

Yusaku glanced up at the top of the screen and sighed. "You're typing in white."

"I'm what?" Takeru asked.

"You're typing in white," Yusaku repeated. "Everything you're writing is white. It's all there, but since the background of the file is white, it blends in and you can't see it. Hold on." Yusaku used a keyboard shortcut to select everything in the file, then clicked on a menu to change the color of all the text to black.

The part of the text that had previously been white started out like the rest of the file, consisting of coherent sentences. It quickly devolved into gibberish, followed by the repeated question of 'why', and then at the end a series of random letters and numbers.

Takeru laughed. "Wow, that's embarrassing. I have no idea how that happened," he admitted.

"Computers are weird," Yusaku told him, shrugging.

"Hey, while you're here, do you mind checking something else out for me?" Takeru asked. "My computer wouldn't connect to the printer yesterday. I don't know if it is now or not, but if it isn't I have no idea what I need to do to connect it again..."

Quickly bringing up the print screen, Yusaku frowned at the list of printers available. "It's not even on there."

"Do we need to restart the printer?" Takeru asked. Their printer could be finicky at times. They kept it on, but occasionally it would stop connecting to the internet until someone restarted it. Of course, this usually only happened when one of them needed to print something.

"No. If it was just disconnected it would still be an option here," Yusaku explained. "Your computer...uninstalled the printer, I guess."

"I definitely didn't mean to do that," Takeru promised as Yusaku opened a wizard that would connect Takeru's printer to the wizard.

"I know you didn't," Yusaku said as he quickly clicked different options. "I don't even know how you would do that." After a minute or two, the wizard finished the process, and Yusaku confirmed that Takeru could connect to the printer again.

"Thanks," Takeru said, shooting a smile up at Yusaku. "I really appreciate it. I'm hopeless with computers, I don't know what I'd do without you."

"No problem," Yusaku replied. He looked down at the screen and frowned. "Like I said, computers are weird." He glanced down at Takeru, the frown fading. "Let me know when you're done with this. We were going to do a race later, right? A Link to the Past? We can do that then."

"Yeah, sounds good," Takeru agreed. He turned back to his laptop. "It shouldn't take me much longer, I was almost done anyway. I'll let you know."


	2. Horror Stories | Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takeru recalls an old introduction.
> 
> Yusaku is difficult to shop for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 2: ~~Fairy Tales~~ / **Horror Stories**
> 
> Day 3: **Christmas** / ~~Valentines Day and/or White Day~~
> 
> both of these take place during season 2 of Vrains! thanks for reading, i hope you enjoy!! happy holidays, everyone, i hope the past weeks and the coming weeks have been good for you! and if not, i hope things get better soon!

(Day 2)

“I still can’t believe you thought Flame was a ghost at first,” Ai said, staring up at Takeru. “I mean, I’m sure it’s hard for humans to imagine something as superior and cool as AI like us. But a ghost? Wouldn’t be my first guess.”

“Not just any ghost either,” Flame corrected him. “Specifically a ghost that his grandfather told him about.” 

Takeru looked away, a frown starting to form on his face. He was leaning with both of his arms against the table between him and Yusaku, propping his head up in one of his hands. “Why does this always get brought up every time I have to tell this story?” 

“Your grandfather told you ghost stories?” Yusaku had been looking down at his phone, still listening to the conversation but not joining in. At the mention of ghosts, however, all other trains of thought gone. 

“I’ve never run into the ghost myself,” Takeru told him. “But my grandpa’s had some encounters with it.” 

"Wait, there's actually a ghost haunting your grandparents??" Ai asked, flinching away from Takeru but still staying half-submerged in Yusaku's duel disk, which sat on the table in front of Yusaku. "Remind me to never visit you when you're over there." 

"Don't act so terrified." 

Ai looked up at Yusaku at those words, but Yusaku's glare, aimed towards Ai, was unyielding. Ai slouched forward with a sigh. 

"So, what has this ghost done?" Yusaku looked up at Takeru again. 

"It's not like it's done a lot," Takeru admitted. "Grandpa's heard it talk to him a couple of times. He's not sure what it's said to him, but... It likes to move things, too.  It can't move anything very far, but enough that he's turned his back on the room for a second, and then when he's turned around again he swears a bunch of the furniture in the room is off by a few centimeters." 

Ai perked up, his sulking quickly forgotten. "Wait, that's all?" 

 "If it's talked to him, I guess it makes sense why you thought I was that ghost," Flame mused. 

"But then... You had quite the reaction to me, for a ghost that's done so little." 

"I didn't react that much," Takeru protested. 

"You threw me across your room, and then I had to wait in your closet before you would even listen to me," Flame reminded him. 

"You threw Flame across a room??" Ai repeated. 

"Maybe I overreacted a little," Takeru said. 

Ai looked back towards Yusaku, all but grinning at him. "He threw Flame across a room! You sought me out and got me to come to you. At least  _Ai_  know I was wanted!" 

Yusaku groaned and pushed his duel disk away from that. "Don't be too sure." 

Before Ai could resume sulking, however, Flame shifted in Takeru's duel disk so that he was higher up. He smirked up at Takeru. "You're afraid of ghosts." 

"You're afraid of ghosts??" Ai repeated. 

 From Flame, it hadn't been a question. The fact had already solidified in his mind, but Ai was staring up at Takeru with amazement. 

 Takeru narrowed his eyes, looking down at Flame. "It's a perfectly normal fear. Don't look at me like that." 

Flame was already readying his next reply, but he was beaten to the punch. Yusaku reached across the table, grabbing one of Takeru's hands with his. 

"You don't have to worry about any ghosts here." 

Takeru looked down at his hand, still held in Yusaku's, up to Yusaku's face. Yusaku was still looking at him, maintaining eye contact. Takeru was the first to look away with a frown. "You're teasing me, aren't you?" 

"Maybe a little," Yusaku replied, a ghost of a smile appearing on his face. 

Ai gasped. "Yusaku's finally developing a sense of humor!" 

"All the time he's spent around you must be good for him," Flame told him. 

Yusaku rolled his eyes. "It's done nothing for me but cause me to be annoyed more often than I used to be." 

Takeru looked between the two of them with a laugh. "Still..." His gaze settled on Yusaku. "I appreciate the sentiment." 

* * *

(Day 3) 

“Hey, Yusaku, what should I get you for Christmas?” 

“You don’t have to get anything for me.” 

“I want to, though. I want to make sure it’s something you like.” 

“You really don’t have to worry about it. There’s nothing I want, anyway.” 

Takeru was willing to admit that he wasn’t the best at figuring out what to get people for presents. But Yusaku certainly wasn’t making it any easier. He refused to give Takeru any suggestions or ideas, and now he had no idea what to do. 

For most people Takeru knew in this city, it’d be easy. Aoi, Shima, the members of the Duel Club, any of them he could find a nice card tin to give them, if he’d needed to get them anything. Kusanagi, Takeru already had an eye on a hat that looked like a hot dog, or a similar looking pair of slippers. Yusaku? Yusaku dueled, but he didn’t like to unless necessary. Cards might not be the best present for him. And Takeru knew he was good with computers, but Takeru didn’t know the first thing about computers himself. 

Takeru needed help for an idea. Flame was as lost as him, any of Ai’s suggestions would probably backfire, and Yusaku already proved to be no help. There was only one person left to go to: Kusanagi. 

“If you’re having trouble figuring something out, you really don’t have to get him anything,” Kusanagi told him. 

“I know, he said that, too. But I do want to get him something,” Takeru insisted. “It’s just...” 

“Trust me, I know.” Kusanagi leaned back in his chair, looking up at the screen of the computer in his truck with a smile. “He’s hard to shop for. I’ve been there. It’d help if he tried to have a life outside being Playmaker for once.” 

"What've you gotten him before?" Takeru asked. 

“Got him some clothes. T-shirt, jeans. He wears them whenever he helps out running the truck,” Kusanagi answered. “He only had two outfits before: the school uniform and that outfit he wears whenever he has to do Playmaker stuff outside Vrains. He really needed something else to wear. Especially if he wanted to blend in as a normal kid, because most people have more clothes than that.”

It was thoughtful, and something Yusaku had needed at the time. Even if, knowing Yusaku, he’d probably insisted he didn’t need anything back then, either.

“I see. That makes sense. I suppose a practical gift, something he needs and can use, would be better than anything,” Takeru noted. “There’s not anything he needs right now, though, is there?”

“Hmm.” Kusanagi frowned, sitting in silence for a moment. “I know his laptop’s keyboard is full of crumbs, that definitely needs to be cleaned. But that’s not what we’re going for.”

“Anything with his laptop not working?”

“It’s working fine for what it is.”

“Actually, hold on. How does this sound?”

\---

“What is this?” Yusaku questioned, staring down at the wrapped box Takeru just pushed towards him.

“A Christmas present,” Takeru responded. “I know it’s a few days early, but it could come in handy.”

Yusaku looked up at him. “You didn’t have to get me anything. I told you that.”

“And I wanted to get you something, so I did it anyways. Besides, like I said, it could be useful. Just open it, you don’t have to get anything for me.”

Yusaku gave him an uncertain look, but unwrapped the box anyway. Opening it, he pulled out a blue Nintendo DS. They were going old school, it seemed.

Takeru pulled out another Nintendo DS from his pocket, this one red. “One for each of us, since I thought it could help me out, too.”

“What is it for?” Yusaku asked. Playing games was the obvious answer, but Takeru knew Yusaku was smarter than that. He had something else in mind, and Yusaku could recognize that.

“Talking to Ai and Flame around other people, so we don’t reveal our identities. I know we figured out how to do that on our phones, but honestly, you don’t use your phone much. It’ll make you seem suspicious to anyone who actually pays attention.” Takeru turned his one, flipping it open, and opened a Pictochat chatroom. “But if you just secretly like playing games, people might not find that so strange. We can use Pictochat for that. Or, knowing you, you could probably get a game to work with Ai, let him talk to you through that. And if you talk back to him, well, you’re just really getting into the game. That would probably look less strange than sitting on Pictochat, actually.”

Yusaku looked over at Takeru’s DS. Flame was talking on Pictochat, and Takeru could respond, but a casual observer would have no idea.

“That’s...not a bad idea,” Yusaku conceded.

“Of course it isn’t,” Takeru told him with a huff. “Being able to talk to Flame and Ai at any time is bery important.”

“Oh! Oh!” Ai popped up out of Yusaku’s duel disk, glancing at Takeru’s DS before looking to Yusaku. “Can we reprogram Scrimmy Bingis?”

“I’m not buying Scrimmy Bingus, and I’m not reprogramming it so you can talk to me through Scrimmy Bingus,” Yusaku said.

“Please??” Ai pleaded.

Yusaku shook his head. “We’re reprogramming Pokemon.”

“Aw, you’re no fun, Yusaku.”

 


	3. Dying | Envy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takeru and Yusaku take a trip down memory lane.
> 
> Yusaku reflects on one of the differences between himself and Takeru.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 4: ~~Birthday~~ / **Dying**  
>  Day 5: ~~Muse~~ / **Envy**
> 
> both take place during season two of Vrains!
> 
> these two are a bit darker, so proceed with caution! tags related to these chapters include ptsd, suicide ideation, and discussions of past possible death. the latter two tags only apply to day 4 -- feel free to skip down to read only day 3, though the ptsd tag also applies to day 5, so you're free to skip this chapter entirely if you want, i dont mind! thank you for reading, and i hope you enjoy!

(Day 4)

"I can't believe," Takeru said between bites of the hot dog he was holding, "that while I was just skipping class, you were fighting against the Knights of Hanoi, saving Vrains."

"It's not as glamorous as all that," Yusaku mumbled, His own hot dog, held up in the air in his left hand, had been barely touched.

Takeru had long since proven himself competent, capable. He'd been fighting alongside Yusaku long enough that it was easy to forget how much he admired the heroes who saved Vrains. And it was easy for Yusaku to forget that he was technically counted among those heroes.

Sure, maybe to most other people, Playmaker helped save Vrains, had become a hero. And Yusaku certainly hadn’t wanted Hanoi to hurt more people than they already had. But there was far more going on than that.

“Of course,” Takeru agreed on Yusaku’s point. “There was a lot at stake, lives on the line. But the fact that you won despite all that proves your skill. You’ve helped a lot of people.”

“I was in it for revenge,” Yusaku reminded him. “No matter Hanoi’s plans, I would’ve done the same. It’s good everyone was okay in the end, but... I was fighting more for myself than anyone. My main goal was always revenge. So no matter the outcome, I’m not really a hero.”

Takeru frowned. “You still saved people, and I don’t think you truly didn’t care about them at all. That counts for something. Especially when you had so little help.”

“Given the risks involved, I can’t blame anyone. No one should’ve wanted to help at all.” Yusaku shrugged. “It’s better that way, anyway. Less people to get wrapped up in my problems. Less people being put in danger.”

Takeru sat his hot dog down. “It’s really true, rjght? That if you’d lost, you would’ve been erased by the tower, too.”

“It’s true.”

“You wouldn’t be here now. And you went into Vrains knowing that, and you fought anyway.”

“I did.”

Yusaku rose an eyebrow at Takeru. Did Takeru have a point with all this?

“How were you able to risk your own life like that?” Takeru asked.

“It’s easy to risk everything,” Yusaku answered slowly, “when you don’t have anything to risk.”

Takeru nearly choked on his hot dog.

“Hanoi took everything from me,” Yusaku told him. “My past. My present. Even my future. I was unable to move on, unable to heal. I had to take matters into my own hands, I had to take action, for anything to change. I walked down the path of revenge, and I couldn’t turn away until I reached the end.”

Takeru was silent at that. He understood, Yuskau knew, better than most people would.

“I couldn’t see a future beyond where I was,” he went on. “Even now, I still can’t see a future for myself. So risking a future I couldn’t see was easy. If I failed, I had no regrets. Revenge is a terrible road to walk down, and no one should spend their time living in the past. Even believing that now, I wouldn’t change a single thing I did.”

“It’s not just about the future,” Takeru mumbled around a bite of his hot dog. “Surely Shima would realize you were gone and miss you. Kusanagi definitely would.”

“Shima would latch onto someone else easily enough,” Yusaku responded. “And Kusanagi...we worked towards the same goals. I was just a tool for us to both get what we needed. Of course he’d miss out on that.”

“You know better than that. Kusanagi cares about you more than that. You care about him, too.”

Yusaku looked down at his feet. “My absence would’ve had minimal impact on the world around me. I was trapped in my revenge, and couldn’t see a life outside it. If anyone had to die to stop the Hanoi, it should’ve been me. I was the logical choice.”

Even now, he couldn’t see a life outside what he needed to do as Playmaker. If he had to die in this war against Lightning, better him than anyone else. Everyone else had lives ahead of them to live, at least. He had nothing.

“I couldn’t have moved forward, either,” Takeru admitted. “Not without you. Before you defeated Revolver, I was just as trapped as you.”

Yusaku looked up at him.

“You helped me see a future. Maybe I can help you see one, too. Maybe we can find one together,” Takeru told him. “I didn’t know you back then, but... I’m really glad you’re still here. And even if it’s as easy to accept your own death as you say, I don’t want that for you. You deserve a life, too.”

“Maybe I do,” Yusaku muttered.

Maybe one day he’d be able to see that. Part of him wanted Takeru to be right, but to the rest of him, it didn’t matter so much.

He bit into his own hot dog. Mustard splashed against his mouth.

* * *

(Day 5)

When Yusaku was little, too long ago, he used to enjoy dueling. He used to make friends with other kids his age who dueled, and he'd play against them. And, back, then, the outcome didn't matter to him. He wasn't very good, but he had fun, and that was all he wanted.

Now, ten years later, Yusaku has no interest in dueling.

Or, no, he supposed that wasn't right. It wasn't that he wasn't interested in dueling. Any enjoyment of the game had been sucked out of him. He didn't like dueling anymore. It was natural for kids' interests to change as they grew up, but the fun Yusaku used to feel while playing the game had been taken from him, wasn't an option during the incident, and Yusaku was still trapped in that mindset. Duels were stressful and risky, and the more he dueled, the more opportunities he gave himself to lose. So, Yusaku figured, if he only dueled when necessary, he was less likely to lose.

If he lost, even after ten years, he wasn't sure he could handle it.

During the incident, losing a duel meant Yusaku couldn't eat. He couldn't afford to lose then. He hadn't originally been a very good duelist, but he'd been forced to become the best. Not that it mattered to him now. He was still a good duelist, but dueling was painful more than anything these days, and if Yusaku had any say in the matter he'd never have to duel again.

Wouldn't anyone, after dueling for their own survival for so long, find it hard to have fun playing the very game that caused them so much pain?

Well, not anyone, Yusaku reflected.

Takeru had gone through the same situation as him,  but he was able to enjoy his duels now, where Yusaku still could not.

Takeru had been able to find his love for the game again. He'd been able to have fun dueling against Blue Angel, Go Onizuka, people he admired. He was able to find the idea of joining the Duel Club exciting, where Yusaku still considered it a nuisance, a waste of his time.

Takeru wasn't letting their past define him. Takeru was moving on in a way that Yusaku, even after his revenge against the Knights of Hanoi was completed, still wasn't able to do, not fully.

Takeru, Yusaku knew, was a stronger person than he was.

And it was probably healthy for Yusaku to admit he was envious of him for that.

It would be easier to be Playmaker if he actually enjoyed his duels. But it was more than that. Yusaku wasn't able to reclaim the person he used to be ten years ago, and maybe he never would be able to. In many ways, it was realistic, because that's how trauma worked. It many ways, it was a good thing, because no one is the same person they used to be ten years ago; people grow and learn and change for the better.

But there was something powerful in taking back what the incident took from him. Enjoying the game he'd had to learn to not enjoy. At the very least, being filled with an emotion, when he dueled, that wasn't annoyance at its best, dread at its worst. Even if dueling wasn't his favorite activity anymore, Yusaku at least wanted to be able to have fun playing it.

Yusaku glanced over at Takeru. Takeru was currently leafing through cards, a smile on his face.

Yusaku had spent every day for ten years trying to reach the point Takeru was at now, and he still wasn't there. Takeru was a much stronger person than he was. And he envied him for that.

It wasn't fair to Takeru. Admitting how he felt to himself stung, a little, at Yusaku's chest. But that didn't change how he felt.

 


	4. Bad Puns | YGO Series AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ai and Flame realize something's on Takeru and Yusaku's minds.
> 
> Yusaku is determined to ignore the upcoming Tag Force tournament.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 6: **Bad** ~~Pick-up Lines and/or~~ **Puns** / ~~Playing Games~~
> 
> Day 7: **YGO Series** ~~Crossover~~ / ~~Other Fandom~~ **AU**
> 
> With day 7, I kinda went back and forth on what I wanted to do for awhile... But I already have a crossover with Bacon Saver, with GX and Vrains (even if Takeru's not in that), and I played quite a bit of Tag Force 1 during the semester, so... this turned into a Tag Force 1 AU! Kinda? Something like that. Day 6 takes place during season two (of Vrains).

(Day 6)

Takeru waved to Yusaku and Kusanagi as he exited the truck, heading out for the day. He shut the door behind him. Yusaku and Kusanagi were both going to work for longer; Takeru would help if he could, but he was hopeless when it came to monitoring Vrains and hacking into its systems.

Plus, they’d all worked so hard lately, and Takeru personally needed to rest. He was exhausted.

Of course, that meant that he only got to enjoy his peace and quiet until the the truck was too far away to be seen if he turned back. That was when Flame popped out of his duel disk.

“There’s something I don’t get,” Flame said.

“You’re lucky no one else is around right now to see you,” Takeru mumbled.

“Ever since you caught up on recent events, you’ve admired the heroes who saved Vrains. You didn’t bother trying to hide from Blue Angel or from Go Onizuka that you’re big fans of theirs,” Flame recalled.

“There wasn’t any point in hiding it.” Takeru shrugged. “They both have lots of fans, it couldn’t have revealed my identity. Plus, I was so excited to duel them both. I still can’t believe I got that opportunity, even if they weren’t quite what I expected.”

“Still, you’re big fans of the heroes who saved Vrains,” Flame pushed. “All three of them. Yet you haven’t shown the same behavior around Playmaker as the other two. You haven’t tried to duel him, or displayed your admiration at the same level.”

“He gets enough of that from Shima, from the sounds of it. Calling himself Playmaker’s soulmate and all that.” Takeru rolled his eyes. “And trying to duel him wouldn’t just be pointless, it’d be rude. He’d never accept it unless he somehow needed to to save Jin. And knowing why, I’d never force him to, even if I’m curious how I stack up against him.”

“You’re awfully considerate towards him,” Flame noted. “Definitely more than the others.”

“I care about their feelings, too.”

“You called Go Onizuka a dog to his face.”

“It was the truth, at least.”

“You know, I get the feeling it’s not just about how Playmaker feels. I think you care about his opinion of you, too..”

“Of course I want him to think I’m not just some fan,” Takeru protested. “We’ve been working together. If he doesn’t think I’m competent, I won’t be able to help as much.”

Flame leaned up close.

“I hate it when you make that expression.” If Takeru had to call it something, this was definitely Flame’s way of smirking. And it never meant something good. It usually meant Flame was about to make a joke at his expense, of course, but that still wasn’t good.

"I've figured you out," Flame declared.

"Then that means you can stop." Takeru sighed. Of course Flame wasn't going to, but he could hope, at least.

"Your heart  _burns_  for him." Flame ignored the squeak that came out of Takeru at that, as well as the subsequent glare the pun earned him. "Your soul longs for him, your feelings for him blaze strongly. He's built up a fire in your heart, and you want him to feel the same way about you. You're hoping he does. And that's why you act differently around him than you do around Blue Angel or Go Onizuka."

"It's not like that," Takeru told him.

"You like him," Flame insisted.

Takeru sighed. "And what would you want me to do it if you were right?"

"What every person in love does. Ask him out on a date."

Takeru let out a huff of annoyance. "And if he also happened to like me, what kind of date would we even go on? Patrolling Vrains for signs of Lightning together?"

"I hear Yusaku likes bowling."

"Come on, be serious. That was an actual question."

"And I gave an actual, serious answer."

\---

As the door to the food truck closed, Kusanagi's hands stopped, hovering over the keyboard, as he turned to look at Yusaku.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You seem like you've been kinda distracted lately."

"I have?" Yusaku continued typing, his eyes fixed on the screen in front of them.

"By now, I have a pretty good idea of what you're capable of. You've been working slower than usual. I'm not upset about it or anything, we've all been working really hard lately, I'm sure you're exhausted and it's bound to slow you down. But it's never slowed you down this much before." Kusanagi lifted his arms up in a stretch, still looking over at Yusaku. "It just seems like something's on your mind. If something's bothering you, you can talk to me, you know."

"I know." Yusaku's hands faltered for a second over the keyboard before he resumed typing. "But I'm okay, really. You don't need to worry, I'm up for the task."

Kusanagi pressed against his temples with one of his hands. "I'm not worried about if you're up for the job, Yusaku. I know you are. I'm worried about you."

" _Ai_ know what's up with Yusaku!" Ai exclaimed, popping out of Yusaku's duel disk, which was currently sitting next to the keyboard Yusaku was using.

"Oh? Then what's on his mind?" Kusanagi asked.

"It's not what, but who," Ai corrected him.

Yusaku stopped typing, glaring over at Ai.

Kusanagi's eyebrows shot up. "Oh? Then who's on his mind, then?"

"It's Takeru," Ai explained.

"Takeru?"

Yusaku reached over to press the mute button on his duel disk.

"...You know I'm not locked to that thing anymore, right?" Ai placed his hands on his hips. "That doesn't work on me anymore."

"Then be quiet," Yusaku ordered.

"You only want me to stop talking because I'm right!" Ai declared, moving one of his hands to point at Yusaku. "He's _hacked_  his way into your heart! Your feelings for him are acting like a  _virus_  to your capabilities, because you don't know how to deal with it! You don't know how to handle any feelings like this, especially when you're so determined not to form actual relationships with anyone around you!"

Yusaku turned his glare back to the screen in front of him.

"Wait, is that true?" Kusanagi asked Yusaku.

"Ai can think whatever he wants," Yusaku answered. "Even if it was, we have more important things to worry about right now. Like looking for signs of the Ignis algorithm in Vrains, trying to find a lead."

"A break never hurt anyone, and I think you need it more than I do," Kusanagi decided. He pushed his chair away from his keyboard.

"If I was wrong, he wouldn't care about what I'm saying," Ai argued.

Kusanagi snorted. "Never thought I'd see the day where Yusaku  _likes_ someone."

"Don't encourage him," Yusaku mumbled.

"Ah, young fugitives, wanted by SOL Technologies, in love!" Ai batted his eyes and sighed. "You have to sweep him off his feet, Yusaku! Buy him a big bouquet of flowers, or chocolate! Write him a poem!"

"Nah, that's not really Yusaku's style," Kusanagi said. "But knowing him, he'd probably mess it up somehow anyway. Poor Takeru."

"I don't feel anything about anyone," Yusaku corrected them both. "Even if I did, that doesn't mean anyone feels anything about me, either. Leave us both out of it."

"Yeah, you're right, he definitely would," Ai replied to Kusanagi. "Better to let Takeru make the first move. Even if he doesn't get it right, he'll still do better than Mr. No Fun Allowed here."

"Let Takeru make the first move? You really think he likes Yusaku, too?" Kusanagi asked.

"Definitely. I feel bad for him." Ai shook his head. "He should get better taste, he could do so much better."

Yusaku began to type again, but one of his fingers soon hit an incorrect key. He frowned at the keyboard. "Don't just decide how either of us feels for us. You don't actually know."

Kusanagi grabbed Yusaku by the shoulder. "Oh, Yusaku, you should've just told me you had a crush. You should embrace it. It's important to explore these kinds of emotions if you feel them, it's good for you. Let yourself be happy once in awhile."

"There really isn't time to," Yusaku argued.

"So you admit it!" Ai interjected.

Yusaku sighed. "The two of you make a terrible team."

* * *

(Day 7)

If Yusaku were to be completely honest, he was one of the best duelists he knew.

And that’s precisely why, during his entrance exam into Duel Academy, he hadn’t let himself place any higher than Ra Yellow for the dorms. He knew he could do better than he’d done then, but Yusaku wasn’t one to draw attention to himself. As far as he was concerned, the more average he appeared, the better.

...Maybe he’d accomplished that a little too well, at the entrance exam. He’d passed, but just barely, and had been thrown into the worst dorm, Slifer Red. Yusaku didn’t really want to stick out as one of the worst students, either.

There was a silver lining, at least, in that Yusaku had been roomed with one of the only students he cared to be around. Kusanagi, third-year Slifer who, like Yusaku, wasn’t here just to learn to duel. The two of them worked together well, traded information, and on days where dinner was particularly bad, Kusanagi could make really good hot dogs. (Were students even allowed to make their own food here? Yusaku gave it a moment of consideration, but decided he didn’t care enough to find out.)

After hitting it off within the first few days they knew each other, Yusaku and Kusanagi worked like that for a few months without incident.

Then, someone new transferred to Duel Academy. All transfer students were placed in Slifer, so it was hardly surprising when this new person was going to be their next-door neighbor.

“He’s supposed to be the same year as you,” Kusanagi said. “You should introduce yourself, meet the guy. It’d be good for you to make a new friend.”

“I’m not here to make friends. That’d just be a waste of my time,” Yusaku replied.

They were up late that night, looking into a new lead. Neither of them expected to be woken up early by a knock on the door.

“Who’d be stopping by this early?” Yusaku asked himself as he got up. Normally, he and Kusanagi would already be getting up anyway to get ready for class (going to class was necessary for not standing out), but today was Sunday. No class. Perfect for sleeping in. 

He’d get an answer to his question when he answered the door. Holding back a yawn, Yusaku opened the door.

Standing on the other side of their door was someone Yusaku didn’t recognize. Not that he really knew anyone at the school besides Kusanagi, but this was someone he’d definitely never seen before. The stranger was already dressed in the Slifer Red uniform. This early? Yusaku looked down at the pajamas he was still wearing, then at the stranger already dressed for the day again.

“Um,” Yusaku said, because what was he supposed to say in this situation? It should already be obvious he wasn’t expecting company, or anything. Neither was Kusanagi, who was awake but hadn’t gotten out of his bed. 

“Hi,” the stranger greeted him. “I don’t think we’ve met? I’m the new transfer student. I live next-door. I know it’s, uh, early...” He glanced briefly down at Yusaku’s pajamas. “But do you know anything about this Tag Force tournament? No one’s told me anything about it yet, but it sounds like everyone’s supposed to be planning for it now.”

Yusaku frowned as the transfer student inspected his pajamas. He’d worked hard all week, even if little of that effort went into actual schoolwork, and he and Kusanagi had earned the right to sleep in on Sunday if they wanted to.

The Tag Force tournament. Right.

“The Tag Force tournament’s coming up in a couple of months,” Yusaku told him. “Duelists will be teaming up for tag duels. Teams will be betting medals to try to collect the most. Some students are teaming up on Sundays to practice tag dueling before then. They’re in the duel arena in the main building right now, I think.”

“A tag dueling tournament...” the transfer student repeated. “And practices are on our days off, I see.”

Well, the transfer student came here for information, and Yusaku had given it to him. He was about to close the door when the transfer student asked another question.

“Do you want to practice with me?”

“Uh,” Yusaku responded, because he did not expect that, of all things.

“I know we just met, and you probably weren’t planning on going,” the transfer student went on. “But the best way to catch up with everyone is to probably duel them, and if everyone’s tag dueling today, I’ll need a partner. I’m probably going to have a hard time finding anyone who doesn’t have a partner. Plus, it’ll be a good way for us to get to know each other.”

Yusaku still had no idea what to say. He looked back at Kusanagi.

Kusanagi waved a hand at him. “I already told you I don’t care much about the tournament. You go if you want.”

If Yusaku was going to team up with anyone for the tournament, it would be Kusanagi. But like Kusanagi said, he didn’t care much for the tournament, especially not practicing for it. Yusaku didn’t either. They both knew that. More than anything, that was confirmation that neither of them were planning to do anything that day, that Kusanagi didn’t really care whether Yusaku went or not.

Yusaku turned back to the transfer student, fumbling for words. “Sure,” he finally managed. “Just give me time to get ready.”

“Oh, yeah, of course. Just knock on my door when you’re ready. No one else is there, so...” The transfer student held out his hand. “You can call me Takeru.”

“Yusaku.” Yusaku shook Takeru’s hand.

Takeru left after that. As Yusaku closed their door, he heard Kusanagi laugh behind him.

“What do you think’s so funny?” Yusaku asked.

“I thought you didn’t have time to make friends.” Kusanagi snorted. “Guess that changed when the new transfer student turned out to be cute.”

Yusaku rolled his eyes and grabbed the jacket of his uniform.

 


	5. Dreams | Win or Lose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takeru tries to do whatever he can to help.
> 
> Yusaku plays his cards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 8: ~~Royalty~~ / **Dreams**
> 
> Day 9: ~~Favorite Card~~ / **Win or Lose**
> 
> be safe!! the nightmares tag applies to day 8, the panic attacks tag applies to day 9. tags including ptsd and depression apply to both. both these prompts deal with some of vrains' darker subjects, so if neither of these are for you, that's fine.
> 
> both of these take place in season 2 of vrains! thank you all for reading, and i hope you enjoy! everyone's feedback on these has been really nice and i really appreciate it. you're all wonderful, and i hope for the best for all of you. next chapter will have happier ones, i promise

(Day 8)

Takeru leaned forward on the counter in front of him. He glanced over at the floor next to him.

Yusaku was sitting where he looked, his back leaned against the wall, asleep.

It had been a long night of scanning through Vrains. Still was. They were looking for some sign... Any sign, of Earth, Aqua, Lightning. Lightning, clearly their enemy by now. Earth and Aqua, locations currently unknown for both of them. Logging into Vrains without a lead would just draw unwanted attention to them, from SOL and their bounty hunters. So Yusaku and Kusanagi had been looking from the safety of behind the computer screen. Hacking into the network, scanning for signs of the Ignis Algorithm.

Takeru hated just leaving all the work to them. There was no way he was just going to leave when they were working so hard. But he was useless here, he knew. He could barely turn on a computer, let alone hack into Vrains. All he was good for was offering emotional support, he supposed, so that was what he was trying to do. That, and run out to get anything they needed. Usually that was just snacks. Kusanagi could make hot dogs easily in the truck, of course, but one could only stomach so many hot dogs before needing to eat something, anything else. Kusanagi agreed with Takeru in that, at least; Yusaku had been perfectly willing to eat hot dog after hot dog to keep himself going, but ate just about anything handed to him without complaint.

That's how it'd been going until Yusaku fell asleep about an hour or two ago. Takeru and Kusanagi had decided to let him sleep. Kusanagi was willing to work on his own. Takeru still could only watch him work.

At the moment, Kusanagi was out on a snack run himself. He'd said he needed to stretch his legs, and Takeru figured that probably made sense. Takeru and Yusaku were on their own. Or, Takeru figured, he was technically alone, since Yusaku was still asleep.

It was quiet. Too quiet. Takeru could feel himself starting to slip into sleep himself.

Something shifted against the wall nearby. Takeru forced his eyes open and looked down.

Yusaku had woken up. Takeru immediately woke up fully. Yusaku was now sitting up completely against the wall, his eyes darting around.

"Are you okay?" Takeru asked him.

As he spoke, Yusaku's gaze settled on him. He quickly began to relax.

"I'm fine," Yusaku said. "I was just... It was just a dream."

Takeru frowned. "You get those nightmares, too."

It wasn’t a question. They both had nightmares about the incident; Takeru already knew that, as did Yusaku. But it was different. There was a difference between Takeru experiencing the nightmares and waking up from them himself, and seeing Yusaku wake up from them.

From the outside, Yusaku had panicked for a few moments before grounding himself. Most wouldn’t notice, would think nothing of it. And, Takeru supposed, it must be the same for him, too.

They’d simply gotten used to it, knew how to cope. It made it easier. But it was fucked up they had to in the first place.

Yusaku looked away. “I don’t sleep well. I haven’t, ever since.”

“Me either,” Takeru admitted. “Either it keeps me up at night and I don’t sleep at all, or I wake up feeling more tired than I was when I fell asleep. .”

“And the world expects us to keep up with everyone else.”

“And it builds up, and we get more and more exhausted from it until we’re running on fumes, and people don’t even try to understand what’s wrong.” Takeru huffed. “They think we’re lazy, or worse. I even started to believe it myself... Thought it was normal, and I was just bad at life somehow.”

“People underestimate the power of months of bad sleep,” Yusaku muttered. “Just because the problem can’t be seen, because it isn’t obvious, they think it’s fake, or we’re exaggerating.”

The two of them looked at each other in silence for a few moments. Takeru broke it first with a laugh, the mini venting session now over. Yusaku smiled.

“I know the incident’s over,” Yusaku said. “And the nightmares aren’t as bad now. I did what I had to do, and... It’s a little easier, now that I have the answers I needed. But it’s still hard. It’s still not normal.”

“It’s hard for me, too. I still get them, too, and running on bad sleep...isn’t something I can even handle, sometimes,” Takeru replied. “And maybe it’ll be like that for a long time. It’s not like I want pity from other people, either. Just acknowledgement or acceptance, or something.”

While attending his previous school, Takeru used to skip classes a lot. It hadn’t been intentional at first.

“Someday, it’ll be easier,” Takeru decided.

Someday, they’d both be able to get a restful, undisturbed night of sleep. And when that time came, Takeru would barely even wake up for at least a week.

“Someday,” Yusaku agreed.

* * *

(Day 9)

No duelist out there can win every duel. Eventually, everyone has to lose.

Takeru knew that. Go Onizuka had warned him of that much. And Takeru knew he could lose any duel, and he was confident he could handle it. If he lost, it would be okay. He could keep himself going.

However, Takeru was less confident that Yusaku would be able to handle any loss he came across. Maybe it was Yusaku that Go had truly been trying to warn him about, not Takeru himself. So Takeru hoped Yusaku wouldn’t lose anytime soon, not just for their mission, but Yusaku’s own sake.

With enemies coming at them from multiple directions in Lightning’s group, SOL, and the future lingering threat of Hanoi, duels for both Takeru and Yusaku stockpiled. It should’ve been obvious that one of them had to lose soon. If it had to be either of them, Takeru would’ve preferred himself.

It seemed SOL held a grudge. They came after them hard and strong, demanding both Ignis.

Playmaker looked like he was backed into a corner in this duel. But he was holding on, and Soulburner, Ghost Girl, and Blue Maiden had all seen him come out of more desperate situations on top. Kusanagi, too. They were each confident he’d win here.

But a flash of frustration on Playmaker’s face had made it clear he didn’t have the cards in his hand that he needed. A card was gained from Neo Storm Access, but Playmaker didn’t appear to have the right cards to summon it.

Playmaker set up a counter to keep him in the duel another turn, to hopefully then make his true comeback. But his opponent bad their own counter prepared, blocking Playmaker and forcing him to take one last hit.

His life points dropped to zero.

“Playmaker!!”

Soulburner jumped onto his hoverboard and sped towards Playmaker. He barely registered Blue Maiden and Ghost Girl following him. Playmaker’s opponent demanded Playmaker’s Ignis, tried to take Ai by force, and failed. They all swiftly ignored him. Soulburner landed near Playmaker and ran the rest of the way to him.

(Later, Soulburner would learn that Playmaker had once told Ai, apparently, to flee if they found themselves in a duel that could not be won. Ai wasn’t one to abandon his partner, but given the situation and its consequences, he fled to the safest place he could get to then: Soulburner’s duel disk.).

(Ai wasn't taking the situation well, either.)

“Playmaker!” Soulburner called out to him. He kneeled down in front of him, trying to look him in the eyes. “Are you...”

He didn’t know how to finish that question. Playmaker obviously wasn’t okay; Soulburner had known that lomg before they reached this point.

Playmaker was in front of him, on his hands and knees. Many duelists, in this situation, might cry or scream. Playmaker was breathing heavily, but otherwise remained eerily silent. He stared at nothing, his gaze aimed downward. He gave no response to Soulburner.

“Yusaku?” Soulburner tried instead.

Playmaker’s eyes moved just slightly, now aimed at Soulburner’s knees. He said nothing, did nothing else. He barely seemed to be even there. But he reacted to his name, and right now that was all Soulburner had.

"Playmaker?"

Ghost Girl and Blue Maiden were catching up to them now; it was Blue Maiden who had spoken. Ghost Girl hung back as Blue Maiden ran towards Soulburner and Playmaker.

"Are you okay?" Blue Maiden asked as she reached Playmaker's side. "I don't know what happened, but..." She reached out towards Playmaker.

"Hey, wait--" Soulburner's own hand shot forward, trying to intercept the contact.

He was too late. Blue Maiden's hand reached Playmaker's shoulder. It was a light touch, but Playmaker flinched away from her hand as he breathing quickened. Blue Maiden froze, staring at him.

Soulburner gently guided her hand away from Playmaker. "I don't know how much you know about the Lost Incident, but whenever we lost a duel... We went through a lot of pain and suffering."

This wasn't the time or place to explain the incident in brutal totality to both Blue Maiden and Ghost Girl. But Blue Maiden deserved that much. She turned her head to look at Soulburner, horror filling her expression.

It wasn't that Soulburner had known exactly how Playmaker would react to this situation. He had guesses, well-informed by his own experiences. He wasn't surprised Playmaker reacted the way he had to physical contact, he'd just about expected it. Playmaker wasn't big into physical contact. That's why Soulburner had made sure to keep a small amount of distance between the two of them now.

"I didn't..." Blue Maiden began to apologize, but Soulburner shook his head.

"It's not your fault. It's okay."

Flame popped out of Soulburner's duel disk. "Staying here isn't going to do him any good. We need to get him out of Vrains."

"Wait." Blue Maiden glanced down at Playmaker. "Can we... I want to know that he'll be okay. Can we check on Playmaker, in the real world? I promise I won't do anything to make this worse. If there's anything we can do to help..."

"We don't know their real-world identities," Ghost Girl pointed out. "For good reason, obviously. We shouldn't force them to reveal themselves to us. I'm sure they'll handle it."

In that moment, it didn't matter to Soulburner whether Blue Maiden and Ghost Girl knew or not. It didn't matter that they were both connected to Akira Zaizen, that Akira worked for SOL, that SOL was still after them and their Ignis. There was no time to argue. And Soulburner knew it was better to accept help than refuse it, even if it turned out there was nothing the other two could do.

"Kusanagi, can you send them the location?" Soulburner asked.

"Already done," Kusanagi's voice chimed in.

"Then, please, log Yusaku out."

"Yusa--"

Soulburner didn't hang around to answer Blue Maiden's questions. Half a second after Playmaker was logged out, he logged out after him.

\---

(Kusanagi could've given them a fake location. Takeru wouldn't have cared either away. But he'd sent them Cafe Nagi's current location.)

(It would take time for Aoi and Ema to make it to their destination. Aoi tried to process what Soulburner had implied as they moved. They wouldn't be able to discuss it when they got there; Playmaker was the top priority. But...surely there would be opportunities later on to discuss this, too. The idea that Yusaku might be Playmaker...)

(Both Ema and Aoi already knew as they arrived at the truck that they had no idea who Playmaker was, or Soulburner, if he was there. Despite Soulburner's implications, either of them could be anyone, and they might not know who Ghost Girl or Blue Maiden were, either. Unsure of what to do, they went up to the truck's owner to make an order. Kusanagi took one look at them and told them to take the back door, and that their orders were on the house. He closed up after that. Clearly, he'd only been keeping the business open to wait for them.)

Yusaku fared no better in the real world than he did in Vrains. Takeru came back moments after Yusaku, and Takeru and Kusanagi were both quick to help. The two of them made sure Yusaku sat down safely in one of the chairs in Kusanagi's truck.

Yusaku had just about shut down on them.

"It's getting late, all three of us should get something to eat, but especially Yusaku," Kusanagi noted. "And when the others get here, they won't know where to go..." He bit his lip.

There was one easy compromise here. Takeru doubted it was the best one, but it was the only thing he could think of in the moment.

"You can do what you need to do. I can try to help Yusaku until then."

He felt bad. Kusanagi knew Yusaku better than he did,  Kusanagi would probably be able to help Yusaku better. But, while Takeru could cook some things, he couldn't cook hot dogs to save his life.

"I'll...make us dinner. Keep the business running until they get here... Thanks, Takeru," Kusanagi said.

Takeru didn’t feel like he wouldn’t be much help, not as much as Kusanagi. But he nodded. As Kusanagi started cooking up hot dogs, Takeru sat down next to Yusaku.

“Yusaku?” he asked.

Yusaku looked blankly over in his direction, but it was if he was seeing past or through Takeru. Like Takeru wasn’t even there.

Takeru took a deep breath.

Neither of them could escape their past, not yet. It tried to trap them both, often bringing time to a standstill. It was hard not to live in the past. Now, Yusaku was reliving it.

But there were three reasons why this was different. Why it was okay in this situation that Yusaku lost.

“We were rescued,” Takeru told him. “You got your revenge against Hanoi and learned the truth behind everything. SOL didn’t get their hands on Ai.”

He repeated those three things over and over. Three things for Yusaku to focus on, to help ground him. Bring him back to the present. Think of three things to keep going wasn’t Takeru’s thing. But it’s what gave Yusaku the strength to keep going. Maybe it would help him now.

That’s what Takeru hoped, anyway. He didn’t know what else to say or do to help, so he kept going.

As he repeated himself, Yusaku’s gaze slowly started focusing on him. His breathing started slowing back to normal.

He had no idea how many times he’d repeated himself when Kusanagi put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up; Kusanagi offered him a plate with a couple of hot dogs on it.

“He’s doing better,” Kusanagi said. “Thanks for your help. Take a break, I’ll take care of him.”

Takeru took the plate and stood up. Kusanagi slid into the seat Takeru had been sitting in and started talking to Yusaku. Takeru took a bite of one of his hot dogs.

Something caught his eye. He turned his head to look.

Ghost Girl and Aoi were staring at him.

(When did they get here? Hearing him say ‘we were rescued’ without context must have sounded weird.)

With the hand holding the hot dog, Takeru waved. “Hello. You can call me Takeru. I recently transferred to the high school here, and, uh, I’m Soulburner. Yusaku’s Playmaker, obviously, I already told you that. Sorry this is how you found out.”

They continued staring at him. Takeru just noticed that they were holding hot dogs, too. It’d been some time since he’d been at a dinner this awkward.

Aoi broke the silence, glancing over at Yusaku. “What did SOL do to him?”

“ _SOL_  didn’t do anything,” Takeru muttered bitterly. “Didn’t I already tell you? There’s a reason Yusaku and I can duel so well, you know. There’s a reason losing’s never been an option for us.”

“No one can win all the time, you know,” Ghost Girl piped up.

“Of course I know.” Takeru squeezed his hot dog. “Tell that to Revolver’s dad.”

They ate mostly in silence, keeping an eye on Yusaku. It was awhile before Yusaku was completely present, and before he found his voice again.

“I can’t fight this battle anymore. You shouldn’t want me to, I’m not good enough.”

His voice was low and quiet. Takeru’s heart sank. Yusaku didn’t like dueling anymore, but he’d been trying to. This was several steps back for him. And it wasn’t that he didn’t want to try to save Jin anymore, but Yusaku obviously didn’t want to fail and force everyone to save him, too.

“Of course we want you to fight with us, if you’re able to,” Takeru protested. “You’re the best duelist out there. If anyone can take down SOL and Lightning, it’s you. I know you can.”

“I lost.”

“So what?” Aoi asked. “I’ve lost more duels than you have, but you still want me to fight with you. Go’s lost more times than you, but you asked him to fight with us again.”

"Just because you lost once doesn't mean you're any lesser of a duelist," Takeru added. "You're one of our most powerful allies, that hasn't changed. If anyone can win this, it's you."

"Maybe take a break for a few days, though. Let me and the sandwich guy take the brunt of looking for leads." Ghost Girl grinned as Kusanagi began quietly complaining that hot dogs weren't sandwiches. "You've been working too hard, anyway. I get it, there's someone you want to save, but you need to rest."

"...Rest," Yusaku mumbled.

"And if we find something, I'll make sure you're not left out," Takeru assured him.

"...I'll at least rest, but none of you have to wait for me to do anything. You'll all be fine without me." Yusaku looked up at Takeru. "But...thank you."

 


	6. Soulmate AU | Music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusaku puts his cards away.
> 
> Takeru heads back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 10: **Soulmate AU** / ~~Hanahaki Disease~~
> 
> Day 11: ~~Sweets~~ / **Music**
> 
> Day 10 is an AU of the beginning of season two, and day 11 takes place during season two! 
> 
> As far as the music prompt goes... At my high school, during the holiday concert every year, all the choruses used to sing the Hallelujah chorus at the end, it's long so we didn't have to memorize it. And anyone else who knew the song could go up and sing with the choruses too. Considering recent events, it makes sense that I've been nostalgic... so I've been thinking about it lately, and it manifested here. It gave Kiku a chance to appear, too, and I'm glad for that
> 
> Thank you for reading, thanks everyone for the feedback, I'm glad people have liked these! I hope you guys enjoy this set, too! I know the chapters have been alternating a lot between more angsty ones and more fluff ones, but the next chapter will be a fluffier one, too, so look forward to that! Hope the new year treated yall well!!

(Day 10)

For many duelists, dueling was more than just a card game. More than a hobby, or a way to pass the time. For many, dueling became a career, a way of life, as embellished as that may sound. So it's really no surprise that some duelists were meant to be partner.

For duelists whom this was true, an image of the art of a monster card would appear on their skin, like a tattoo. This card art would be the card art of one of the ace monsters, present or future, of their soulmate. The art could appear on different parts of the body, and duelists could definitely have more than one, but it became a way of more easily identifying soulmates. Partners always each had art for the other.

Yusaku started dueling when he was young, still a child. It was a fun game, and an easy way to make friends. And he was excited when card art appeared on the front of his arm. He didn't recognize the monster, but it looked like it was on fire, and that was cool. It made him more excited to play the game, too, to find this person he was now connected to through his arm.

But time passed, and then time stood still for a long, heavy decade.

For some time, seeing the monster was just another reminder of everything that happened. All dueling had done for Yusaku was brought him pain, and he'd washed his hands of the game now. He wanted nothing to do with it. So why did he have this art on his arm? How was he supposed to end up with a duelist after everything? And what art would show up for someone who didn't even duel?

Then, when revenge became his path, and he picked up his cards again, Yusaku realized he was still a duelist, as much as he hated it. Dueling still had a place in his life after all, and now it all made more sense.

Soon, it was an issue of having too many options for what card his 'soulmate' might be marked with, rather than no options. And the real, bigger issue: the last thing Yusaku wanted was to drag someone down this path with him just because of destiny, or whatever was tying him to another person. It was better he remained alone.

When his revenge was finished, Yusaku finally gave the idea genuine consideration for the first time in ten years. Dueling had caused him plenty of pain in the past, but maybe something good could still come out of it. He was willing to let that happen now. He had no idea when he would meet this person, it didn't have to be any time soon, but he was open now, wasn't determined to push them away for the good of them both.

He was open to the connection, but when he leaped into Vrains to pursue whoever was targeting Jin, it was the last thing on Yusaku's mind.

There were too many people after him, blocking him from what he needed to do. Someone jumped him to back him up and let him save Jin. Yusaku didn't think much of it at first, and he definitely didn't trust Soulburner immediately, but he was willing to take advantage of any opportunity he could right now.

He didn't think much of it, until this new duelist, Soulburner, summoned the monster that was on his arm. Salamangreat Heatleo.

"Looks like your knight in shining armor came to save you, Yusaku!" Ai declared.

"Be quiet," Yusaku ordered. "There's no time to deal with this right now."

But when his duel against his target ended, and Yusaku logged out of Vrains, it returned to the forefront of his thoughts. His soulmate had appeared while he still had business in Vrains, but it didn't look like they were some average duelist who was best kept out of trouble. Yusaku wasn't sure if he could trust Soulburner, but Soulburner seemed more than capable in a duel. And Soulburner had helped him of his own accord.

This could be a good thing. Something good could come of this after all.

("You knew you were soulmates when you showed up to help us??" Ai asked Takeru later.)

(Takeru laughed. "Of course I knew. Everyone's seen Playmaker use Firewall Dragon in at least one duel before, right? Of course I recognized the dragon on my back.)

* * *

(Day 11)

"The holiday concert for school back home is coming up," Takeru said.

It's a pretty abrupt conversation topic, but then, neither of them had spoken in at least an hour. With everything else going on in their lives, both Yusaku and Takeru had fallen behind on homework. Yusaku didn't consider it a problem, but Takeru apparently did. The two of them were sitting together at a table in front of Cafe Nagi, working in silence to catch up.

Or, it had been silence, but Yusaku wasn't complaining. He was starting to get sick of trig. Sick of silently reciting SOHCAHTOA in his head for every problem. Sick of slowly punching expressions into his calculator. He needed the break.

"A holiday concert?" he repeated.

"The school's music department puts one on every year around this time. All the band and choruses at the school perform a few songs and a bunch of people in the community come to listen," Takeru explained.

Did their high school do something like that? Yusaku honestly wasn't sure. He never paid attention, never had any reason to. Music wasn't his forte, and he kept himself pretty busy, between his illegal hacking activities and being Playmaker.

"Kiku and I have gone together for years," Takeru went on. "It's fun to see what songs they do each year, and how often some of them get repeated." He laughed. "Kiku joined one of the choruses this year, though, so she can't watch it with me. I still plan on going, though. Even more so, now, to support her. It's the least I can do, after she's done so much to support me."

"I see." Yusaku frowned. Takeru was from a ways away where they were now. He'd probably be gone for at least a day, then. Takeru was certainly free to live his own life, and Yusaku could probably handle Vrains alone until he came back. He'd done fine against the Knights of Hanoi dueling on his own, after all. If they were lucky, SOL and Lightning would take a few days off, too.

"Do you want to come?" Takeru asked. "It's a fun concert. And you could meet Kiku, meet my grandparents. I'm sure they'd love to meet you."

Yusaku blinked. The invitation caught him off guard, he hadn't been expecting that. And it was...touching, that Takeru was offering him into a tradition he had with his friend.

The holidays were coming. Everyone deserved a break. Even himself, he supposed.

"Sure, if you don't mind having me along."

"Why would I? The more the merrier."

\---

"There's Kiku!" Takeru whispered as the first chorus group began to make their way to the risers. As Kiku got into place and turned to face the audience, Takeru waved at her. She glanced over at him at smiled brightly.

So, this was Kiku. Takeru's friend before he transferred schools and became Soulburner.

It wasn't like Yusaku had much to base his opinion off of, but the concert seemed nice. It sounded good, anyway. And everyone around him seemed happy. That was the most important thing.

Then the last song in the program was announced.  Audience members who knew the song were encouraged to go up front with the performers and sing with them. Booklets were handed out to everyone, audience member or chorus member, who went up front. It probably had lyrics or notes in it, that would make sense, right? It looked long.

"I'll be back. You can stay here." Takeru stood up. "It's rude if I know the song and don't sing, right? Kiku and I have been enough of these that we know the song, we've sang it with them a few times now."

Yusaku watched Takeru walk up front and take a booklet.

(Takeru forgot to tell him before, but the school did this every year during the holiday concert. Every year, everyone would come together and sing Handel's chorus,  _Hallelujah_ , together.)

The song  _was_  long, but Yusaku decided it was one of his favorites from that night's concert.

\---

"Takeru, you came for the concert!" Kiku greeted him with a grin.

Once the concert was over, it took them a little while to find Kiku. But Kiku never would let them hear the end of it if Takeru left without talking to her, and there was no way Takeru was leaving before he saw her, anyway.

"You thought I wouldn't? We come every year, there's no way I'm going to miss it. Especially not since I get to see you," Takeru told her.

"You've started styling your hair differently since I last saw you," Kiku noticed. "It looks more like it did when you were younger... I like it."

"Doesn't look like you've changed much since the last time I was home, but that's okay. I like you just the way you are." Takeru laughed.

Yusaku thought they would catch up for longer at first, but Kiku turned to him after that. "So, I see you brought someone to take my place."

"I'm not..." Yusaku began.

Takeru rolled his eyes. "It's not like that. I figured you wouldn't believe me if I told you I'm making friends at my new school, so I brought Yusaku as proof."

Yusaku mentally caught up; both their voices were ripened with sarcasm, neither of them really meant what they said. He offered Kiku a handshake. "I'm Yusaku."

"And I'm Kiku. It's nice to meet you." Kiku accepted his handshake. "You're more polite than Takeru is."

"I'm not that rude," Takeru protested. "I'm trying to be better, now, I swear!"

"Then thank you for being a positive influence on his life." Kiku giggled. "I hope he's attending class and keeping up with his work."

Yusaku blinked. "He's the one who pushes me to keep up with my work, actually."

"Oh?" Kiku turned to look at Takeru. "You really have changed, haven't you? But that's a good thing. I think I like this Takeru better. I think your grandparents will, too"

"I'm not really that bad, am I?" Takeru groaned, running a hand through his hair.

"But, really." Kiku faced Yusaku again. "Thanks for being his friend, I mean it. Takeru had a tendency to push people out, so he didn't have many friends."

"I'm usually the same way, so I can related," Yusaku admitted.

"Then it sounds like it's  good thing you found each other," Kiku said.

 


	7. Pets / Sickfic | First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusaku loads a saved state.
> 
> Takeru takes Yusaku out bowling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 12: **Pets** ~~/~~ **Sickfic**
> 
> Day 13: ~~Wedding~~ / **First Date**
> 
> Day 13 is somewhat of a sequel for day 6: Bad Puns! Day 13 takes place during season two, day 12...is kind of an AU, doesn't really fit anywhere.
> 
> (i know it's been awhile since it came out, but how about that episode 83!!!!!!!)
> 
> Thank you all for reading!! Only one chapter left, with days 14 and 15... I hope you've all had as much fun with this event as I've had, I've loved reading what other people have written, I've loved writing these, it's been a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy these, and that you've enjoyed these all so far. One more left!! See you next time!!!!

(Day 12)

Takeru woke up with something warm weighing down on both sides of one of his feet.

No...no... two warm things. And he barely needed to be awake to know what they were: Ai and Flame.

He and Yusaku had each owned a cat, and now, Takeru supposed, they collectively owned two cats. Yusaku’s cat was Ai: a black cat with white patches of fur on his face, chest, and back. Flame, meanwhile, was originally Takeru’s: an orange cat with barely noticeable darker stripes. Both cats were, funnily enough, strays who had simply inserted themselves into their lives. Takeru liked to joke that their cats chose them, rather than the other way around. Yusaku regarded Ai as more of a curse.

Yusaku talked about Ai like he was an annoyance, like he didn’t like having him around. But Takeru knew better. It was obvious that was an act after the first time he saw Ai settled on Yusaku’s stomach, purring, while Yusaku pet him with a smile on his face. Yusaku loved his cat, but would deny it until he lost his voice if deemed necessary.

Just because Ai used to only live with Yusaku and Flame with Takeru, didn’t meant that either cat didn’t like both humans, however. Takeru had seen Flame rub against Yusaku’s leg several times, and, well, if Ai sleeping, curled up on his side against Takeru’s foot, didn’t mean he liked Takeru, Takeru wasn’t sure what would.

Even though he’d just woken up, Takeru nearly rolled over and went back to sleep. He felt like someone had hit something against the back of his head, and it felt like he could barely breathe. But with his better judgement, he rolled over and squinted at the clock until he could see which hand was which; he could figure out the rest without more detail, and seeing anything more detailed than that was impossible, anyway.

He’d slept in late enough as it was. With a yawn, Takeru pried his foot out from between the two cats and sat up.

Ai stretched out his legs and raised his head, peering over at Takeru. Flame didn’t move, but Takeru slowly reached over and rubbed his finger against his cheek. Flame rolled over onto his back and stretched out. With a smile, Takeru pulled himself into standing up.

He nearly sat back down again. His head throbbed. Breathing through his nose was impossible, he opened his mouth to try to breathe more easily but that didn’t feel much better. His throat complained at the change.

Oh no, was he... this was such bad timing to be sick, too, but hopefully it was just a cold. He could power through that.

He stumbled out of the bedroom, using the wall for support.

Yusaku was sprawled out on the couch. Playing the Nintendo Switch on the TV, of course. He had the NES game collection open, playing...was that Metroid? Takeru heard him sigh and open a menu.

Takeru heard a chirrup behind him. Ai must've followed him out. He watched a black blur walk up to the couch, jump up, and flop down next to Yusaku. Something brushed against Takeru's leg; Flame followed him, too.

"You're awake." Yusaku paused the game and looked up at him. Takeru waved. Yusaku frowned. "Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine--"

Takeru cut himself off. Was that really how his voice sounded right now? It sounded hoarse, and higher pitched than usual. He hadn't been trying to do that. He tried again, knowing his voice wouldn't sound any different, but knowing Yusaku wouldn't believe he was fine now.

"Probably just a cold or a virus or something.  I'll get breakfast."

He didn't want to say any more than that, talking hurt.

"No, you sit down. I'll get you something." Yusaku stood up before Takeru could object. "Orange juice? Toast?"

Takeru nodded. He couldn't imagine anything more than that. Yusaku went into the kitchen much faster than Takeru could convince his legs to get even to the couch to stop him. He sighed, knowing he'd been beaten. Ai chirruped at Takeru as he sat down next to him.

Yusaku appeared again a second later, handing Takeru his glasses. Takeru looked through them before putting them on. Already clean. A minute later Yusaku came back again, handing Takeru his breakfast and a small box.

"Qlearquil," he explained as he sat back down on the other side of Ai. Yusaku took the box back from Takeru again, opening it and getting into the individually wrapped doses to hand Takeru two of the pills. "You sound like you need it."

"I'm fine," Takeru insisted, but Yusaku glared at him. Sighing, Takeru swallowed the pills down with some orange juice.

As Takeru munched on his toast, he looked up at the screen again. Now that he could see better, he could tell this was definitely Metroid. And he'd known this was in the NES game collecion, but he hadn't realized Yusaku had started it.

"Started playing Metroid earlier," Yusaku told him. "It's hard." He sighed as he missed a jump, sending him into something. Lava? Whatever it was, the game made sure they knew it was draining Yusaku's health. Yusaku pulled up a menu and loaded an old state.

"Why don't you just crouch down to shoot those guys," Takeru asked, pointing at enemies low to the ground chasing Yusaku.

"Can't crouch. There's got to be some way to beat them, but I never claimed to be good at Metroid," Yusaku replied as he kept running. This time he made the jump.

Takeru finished his breakfast by the next time Yusaku died. Without saying anything, Yusaku paused the game, stood up, and took Takeru's dishes. Ai's ears shot up moments before he jumped off the couch to follow him. Takeru smiled, Ai liked to follow Yusaku around and 'help' him with things like putting things away, organizing, rearranging.

"Ai, I'm trying to walk."

Usually, Ai's help involved getting in the way and slowing Yusaku down. But it was the thought that counted, right?

"Mrrow?!"

"I didn't mean to kick you, But that's what happens when you go right where you know I'm going to walk."

Yusaku came back carrying Ai in his arms, Ai struggling to get out of his grasp. "I've captured a criminal."

"He just wants to help you because he loves you," Takeru told him. "He doesn't mean to be in the way. I'll pay his bail."

"He does mean to be in the way," Yusaku corrected. "But, fine, I guess I'll allow it."

In that moment, Ai jumped out of Yusaku's arms and landed on the floor a free cat. His tail wiggled. Ai didn't like being held, but now that he was free, he was happy again. In celebration, he jumped back up to the couch and walked onto Takeru's lap.

"Yusaku's a meanie, isn't he? Don't worry, I'll be nice to you," Takeru told Ai. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Yusaku rolling his eyes, but he ignored him. Ai leaned up to sniff Takeru's face before headbutting his shoulder. Takeru reached up to pet his head, and Ai flopped over in his lap, happily accepting the affection. Takeru heard Flame jump up onto the back of the couch, behind him. Something warm pressed against the back of his neck. Flame must've been snuggling against his neck, too.

"You're popular," Yusaku noted over the loud sound of Ai purring.

Takeru smiled. "Love is the best medicine, and Ai and Flame are very good at that. With their snuggles, I'll be better in no time."

"Is that so?" Yusaku asked. "I hope you're right."

"Of course I'm right. I feel better already."

"Then stay there and keep getting more medicine. I'm going to play something else."

Yusaku looked through the selection of games before popping one in and starting it up. Takeru didn't see which one it was, didn't look at the TV to see. He glanced over at Yusaku as Yusaku sat back down beside him.

"I should warn you...I didn't sleep well, in addition to all this. Another bad dream..."

The words died on his tongue, but Takeru knew Yusaku knew what he was talking about. This wasn't infrequent. Takeru usually ended up having worse dreams than usual this time of year. It was the anniversary that they were found, and...the anniversary of losing something, in return.

Yusaku looked over at him with a frown. "It's not your fault, you know."

"I know. I do, really. I guess some part of me just can't believe it."

"Then, here." Yusaku held a controller out to Takeru. "I'll probably need help with this game. And Flame and Ai'll help, too. Like you said, they're the best medicine."

Indeed, Ai was purring loud enough to push any thoughts of dreams, or any attention to how sick Takeru felt, out of his mind. Flame draped a paw against the side of Takeru's neck. He couldn't help but smile in this cat huddle, they knew how to make every situation better.

Takeru rubbed a finger under Ai's chin. Ai purred louder. With his other hand, he took the controller Yusaku offered him. "Thanks. I really need it."

* * *

(Day 13) 

To Flame's credit, he wasn't wrong. Yusaku did like bowling, and was more than happy to get the chance to go to a bowling alley.

It probably wasn't the usual choice anyone made for a first date. Though, Takeru figured, neither of them were what he'd consider to be normal. It was probably better that they were doing something one of them enjoyed instead of doing something generic like going out to eat, anyway. Definitely preferable.

Once their bowling shoes were on, it was time to pick out bowling balls.

Takeru glanced over the balls at the first rack he came to. He looked at the number on a gray one and picked it up. Yeah, this felt good. Not too light, not too heavy. His choice made, he looked over to see how Yusaku was doing.

Yusaku was carefully looking over every ball at every rack in the alley. It looked like he was comparing numbers. Takeru approached him as he finally made his selection: a light pink ball. As Takeru got close enough to see the number on it, it looked like Yusaku had picked out...

"The lightest ball you can find?" he asked.

Yusaku glared at him. "Bowling balls are heavy. I never claimed to be able to lift too much weight."

"I never said you did, or that that was a bad thing," Takeru assured him. "Let's find a lane to use."

They settled at an unoccupied lane on the end. Scorekeeping was done by hand at this alley, and Yusaku knew how scoring worked better than Takeru, so he let Yusaku take care of that. Takeru went up first, spinning his bowling ball in his hands before sticking his fingers in the holes. He hadn't bowled in awhile, but he was pretty sure he remembered well enough how to bowl. He swung his arm back, then forward, releasing the ball down the lane.

Gutterball.

"Guess I'm rusty," he called out to Yusaku, who was sitting down with the scoresheet, as he walked back towards him to get his ball.

"It's fine. It's not like we're really competing or anything." Yusaku shot a smile at him. "We're just playing for fun, right?"

"Right." It almost felt like Takeru's heart tried to leap out of his chest. Yusaku didn't smile often, it was nice to see him happy.

Takeru's ball was spit back out for him. He grabbed it and made his second attempt at hitting pins that frame. He hit two pins that time. At that, he sat back down. It was Yusaku's turn to bowl.

Yusaku picked up his lighter ball, placing his fingers in the holes. He walked up to the lane and swung his arm slowly, looking between his hand in the ball and the markers on the floor before releasing the ball with a faster swing forward. He hit four pins.

Takeru clapped loudly. "Great hit!"

"Thanks," Yusaku said, snorting lightly. His next attempt he knocked down a couple more hits, Takeru cheering him on even more enthusiastically.

They kept on like this for a few more frames. Neither of them were amassing scores too high. The best either of them did was Yusaku getting a spare in one frame; Yusaku's score stayed consistently above Takeru's, but neither of them really cared either way. It was about just playing and having fun.

During the seventh frame, Takeru left the lane to get them each a drink. He was back within a couple of minutes.

"Thanks," Yusaku said, taking the drink Takeru held out to him. "For all of this. I appreciate it."

Takeru sat down next to him. "We both needed to do something just for fun for once." He'd needed to get his mind off of everything else going on in his life at the moment, and he was sure Yusaku did, too. He leaned over and pecked Yusaku on the cheek. "You're welcome."

 


	8. Time Travel | Free Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusaku confronts a stranger who, quite literally, appeared out of nowhere.
> 
> Takeru faces a duel he'd rather not be part of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 14: **Time Travel** / ~~Superheroes~~
> 
> Bonus Day: Free Day
> 
> For day 14, I've written plenty of (really) gay superhero content for these boys (don't look for it... I haven't published it, for reasons), and if I wrote more of that for this, I wouldn't be publishing that, either, so... a time travel AU it is! Yusaku believes and trusts the situation a lot quicker than he probably actually would, for which I apologize, but... this was already super long! I never meant for it to be so long! But setting it up was... I'm sorry about that. Also be warned: Takeru uses the b word here (Barian) (it's not actually Barian it's a b word) so, if you're not up for the only instance of swearing in this whole thing, that's fine. You can skip the section where Takeru logs back into Vrains until Playmaker reappears.
> 
> The mind control tag applies to day 15! If that's something that's not really for you... feel free to skip. Day 15 takes place during season two, and day 14, well, it's time travel... But the time travelling character is from season two!

(Day 14)

Soulburner hit the ground hard, tumbling backward until he lost enough momentum.

It was a few seconds before he sat up, rubbing his head.

“Are you okay?” Flame asked, sticking his head out of the duel disk.

“I think I’m okay,” Soulburner answered. “I just... What did Lightning even do? I missed it.”

“I’m not sure. But it looks like we got separated from everyone else.”

Soulburner scanned the area around him. Indeed, Playmaker, Blue Maiden, Ghost Girl, Lightning, they were all gone. Lightning must’ve removed him from the situation, literally. He was somewhere entirely different now; it looked like a rooftop somewhere in Vrains, but the area didn’t look familiar.

“We’ll have to find them again,” Soulburner muttered. He pushed a button on his duel disk, the one Kusanagi had drilled in his head was for communications. “Playmaker? ...Kusanagi? Either of you there?”

No response.

“Communications must’ve been broken. We’re not going to get any help, not right now at least.” Soulburner sighed. “Now what do we do? Log out? Try to look for them?”

“Wait for a moment. Let me see if I can get a message through to Ai,” Flame told him.

A few seconds later, Soulburner heard the sound of an approaching hoverboard. He looked up. He recognized that hair, that had to be Playmaker.

“Wow, that was fast. Good work, Flame.”

“As much as I’d like to take the credit, I haven’t even finished writing out the message yet. I didn’t send anything. They found us all on their own,” Flame corrected him.

Playmaker landed on the rooftop, jumped off his hiverboard, and began to walk towards them.

Soulburner waved. “Hey, Playmaker!”

Before he could get in another word, Playmaker looked down to his duel disk. “Are they Hanoi?”

“Nope, no signs of Hanoi here.” Soulburner couldn’t see Ai, but he recognized his voice. “But if he really just appeared like that, that’s strange. People don’t usually do that, even in Vrains.”

“Uh....” Soulburner frowned. This wasn’t the conversation he’d been expecting. He had no idea how to respond to this one.

“Were you dueling the Knights of Hanoi, then?” Playmaker asked, looking up to Soulburner now.

“No? They’ve mostly been in hiding, we haven’t really been...” Soulburner rubbed one of his hands against the back of his neck. “Why are we talking about them, Playmaker? We’ve been focusing all our efforts against Lightning, not the Hanoi.”

“Lightning?” Yusaku glanced down at his duel disk once more.

“I already know what you’re gonna ask. And, nope. I have no idea who that is, either,” Ai replied.

They didn’t know who Lightning was? Then, maybe Lightning did something to alter their memories somehow, and someone else got Soulburner away from Lightning in time so he was spared? No, that sounded like a complicated video game plot, that couldn’t be it. Did technology really work like that, where AI could change the memories of a human in virtual reality? Soulburner didn’t know nearly enough to say.

“Okay, Playmaker, Ai, this joke isn’t funny anymore,” Soulburner told them. “How do you forget about an incoming war between AI and humans? Or an AI that stole human consciousness? There’s no way, you didn’t really...”

“Oh, the stranger knows my name!” Ai’s head and shoulder popped out of Yusaku’s duel disk to look at Soulburner. “I told you I have fans, Playmaker! I—“

Yusaku pushed something on his duel disk. Ai was instantly muted.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, or why you think you know me or my AI,” Playmaker stated. “But you must have the wrong Playmaker, or you must’ve imagined it. I don’t know who you are.”

“I’m...I’m Soulburner.” Soulburner crossed his arms against his chest. “Don’t tell me you don’t... We’ve been working together awhile now. We’ve covered each other in duels, we...”

“‘Playmaker’...” Playmaker lifted his chin. “Does not work with anyone who duels in Vrains.”

Before the conversation could continue, a voice interrupted them. Soulburner recognized the voice as Kusanagi’s, coming from Playmaker’s duel disk.

“Hey, I know I’m the one who told you about this and I’m the one who sent you in case it was related to Hanoi, but I think we have a bigger problem on our hands. Someone appeared right next to my chair, like, in the real world. And besides the fact that no one else knows what we’re doing here, that’s not a thing people should be able to do.”

“Understood. Logging out.”

Before Soulburner could get another word in, Playmaker had logged out.

“Perhaps we should log out as well,” Flame suggested.

Soulburner nodded, and the two of them logged out as well.

\---

When Takeru logged into Vrains, he’d been in one of the secret, hidden away rooms in Cafe Nagi.

So he had no idea why he woke up laying down on the floor in the middle of the vehicle.

Kusanagi was sitting in one of the chairs at the computer, which was actually pretty close to where Takeru was laying down. Kusanagi’s attention was off the computer, though; he watched Takeru as he opened his eyes and sat up, ignoring the way his back complained at laying down on the floor. A few seconds later, Yusaku stumbled out of one of the hidden away rooms and stared down at him, too.

“You okay?” Kusanagi asked Takeru.

Takeru rubbed his head. “I don’t know...what’s going on anymore.”

“You and me both.” Kusanagi sighed. “The last thing I need is random kids appearing in here, we can’t risk anyone figuring out what you’re doing here.”

“I...already know Yusaku is Playmaker?” Takeru frowned. “I don’t see what...”

Kusanagi turned to look at Yusaku. “He is wearing the same uniform as you, must go to your school. You know him?”

“Never seen him before.”

Flame popped out of Takeru's duel disk then. "Takeru, I--"

"Whoa!" Ai popped out of Yusaku's duel disk as well, interrupting whatever Flame was going to say. "You look like me! And you know who I am, too!"

"I...of course I do, Ai. We lived in the same world for years," Flame reminded him.

"Did we?" Ai asked.

"We...can have this conversation later." Flame sighed. "Takeru, I think I've figured out what may be going on. I happened to check the system clock in Vrains, and it appears we've been sent to the past. After Playmaker's first duel with Revolver, to be more precise."

"Sent to the past?" Takeru repeated.

Was that really something that was even possible? Did Lightning have that sort of ability? How did it work, and why would Lightning have used it? Or was it someone else, not actually Lightning? Takeru supposed he couldn’t really question it, though, even if it did sound farfetched. If the date confirmed they somehow ended up in the past, they must be in the past.

“Just look at these dates.” Flame brought up two bits on information on Takeru’s duel disk.

The first was a conversion of Vrains’ server clock to plain terms. The second was Takeru’s duel record as Soulburner in Vrains. All his records were usually wiped to help protect his identity, so there was only one. That was right...they had engaged duel mode on their duel disks before he disappeared, hadn’t they? Playmaker, Soulburner, Ghost Girl, Blue Maiden VS Jin Kusanagi, WindyAI - No result. The date on the second was after the date on the first, which was supposedly the present date.

“It’s farfetched, to think you travelled through time. But you’re not Hanoi, and you don’t seem to have any reason to lie,” Yusaku observed.

“But...” Kusanagi and Yusaku were looking at Takeru’s duel disk as well, and Kusanagi froze. “Why was Yusaku dueling against my brother? Why were you apparently involved?”

That was a bit of a story, especially if Ai seemed to not remember the other Ignis. Meaning Kusanagi and Yusaku probably didn’t know about them, either.

Takeru sighed.

“You can both call me Takeru. My name is Takeru Homura, and in Vrains I am Soulburner, though if we have really gone to the past, the me in your time hasn’t gone in Vrains at all yet. I am also a victim of the Lost Incident. And, before I explain... Kisanagi, I’m so sorry about what happened to Jin.”

\---

“Normally, I wouldn’t care if something happened to Ai’s home.” Ai made an offended noise at that, but Yusaku easily ignored him. “But if the culprit will target Kusanagi’s brother as well, you’ve caught my interest.”

“Jin...” Kusanagi glared at the floor. “To think something like that will happen, even after everything else he’s been through. I swear, I’ll do whatever I can to protect him, to ensure this doesn’t happen to him.

It was like a light switch turned on in Takeru’s head. “That’s it, Flame!”

“What’s it?” Flame asked.

“If we’re in the past, maybe we can do something to prevent the destruction of Cyberse World.”

“We haven’t found a way to completely disable Lightning’s Judgement Arrows yet,” Flame reminded him. “But, you have a point. I’ll head to Cyberse World and see what I can do.”

"In the meantime..." Kusanagi glanced at Takeru's duel disk again, the information that Flame brought up still visible. "Let's see if we can get you back to your own time. If you got here, there must be a way for you to get back."

"You're willing to help me with that?" Takeru asked. "I'm a stranger to you both."

"It's the least we can do, in return for your warning," Kusanagi replied.

"And it sounds like it wasn't your fault you ended up here, anyway. You deserve some help," Yusaku added. "Hanoi's still my top priority, but whenever we're able to get a break from dealing with them, we'll do what we can."

Takeru smiled. "Thank you both. I appreciate it, and I promise I'll make it up to you, in the future and now. I know you know nothing about my dueling capabilities, and most of my dueling record is gone. But I promise I'm fairly good. And I'm not enrolled at school in Den City yet, and it'd be weird if I was attending two different schools at the same time. So if you like, I can help out with fighting Hanoi, especially during school. Yusaku won't be suspicious if he's not disappearing during class, right?"

"That's true," Kusanagi agreed. "Maybe we can try it on a, like...trial basis?"

Yusaku frowned. "We can see how it goes. But only duel against the weaker Knights, leave Revolver and the stronger Knights to me. If you can't even handle the weak ones, then stop and stay out of the way. If you do well, maybe we'll let you take on stronger Knights."

Takeru would've loved the chance to duel against Revolver himself, after everything Hanoi put him through...

But that was Yusaku's battle. He didn't really have a place here in this time, anyway. And like he already said, Yusaku and Kusanagi had no reason to believe he could do well against anyone in a duel. They didn't really have any reason to trust him. He was lucky to be getting this much, and shouldn't try to do more. Takeru wasn't any expert in time travel, but weren't people supposed to try not to alter the timeline much?

"I can fight the weaker Knights. I promise I won't let you down."

\---

"Well, Cyberse World is still hidden and intact," Flame announced as he returned to Takeru's duel disk.

"That's good to hear." Takeru breathed a sigh of relief. "From what it sounded like when you told me everything, it'll be awhile yet before it's destroyed, right? So unless it takes awhile to get home, we can't do much, but I'm still glad."

He stayed vague on when exactly Cyberse World would be destroyed. He knew the timeline as well as Flame. But Takeru was sitting on the floor in Kusanagi's truck right now, Kusanagi hard at work on the computer. Takeru had left out a lot of details when he told Kusanagi and Yusaku what would happen to Cyberse World and Jin. Enough to help prepare them and answer most questions they might have, but if he told them everything that would happen, he wasn't sure how much that would change things. He didn't want to be irresponsible about all this.

"I didn't say a word to Lightning, of course. And obviously Ai's here, and...not quite acting himself, pretending he's missing memories, so I didn't talk to him, either. I don't know what Ai's up to, but I'll let him play this amnesiac game for now," Flame muttered. "The Flame of this time believed me, which makes sense. If I saw another me, I'd believe my story. Aqua knew I wasn't lying, so she believed me, too. Earth and Windy didn't care all that much, which is hardly surprising."

"I see." Takeru hummed in thought. "I know this is off topic, but can you do me a favor? I need a temporary new Vrains avatar, since 'Soulburner' isn't supposed to appear yet. I don't want to influence or change anything for the worse."

"That's easy, I've already done it. If you're going to ask a favor, I'm capable of much more difficult things than that. You can come up with your own new name for yourself, though."

Takeru rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

"Hope you're okay to go into Vrains," Kusanagi interrupted. "But a couple of Knights have been spotted making trouble. Are you okay to take care of them?"

It was just Kusanagi and Takeru (and Flame) in the truck.  Kusanagi was taking a lunch break at the moment. Yusaku was at school right now, classes were still going (Were they almost over by now? Takeru was already having trouble remembering, not being in class himself. It felt like traveling back in time was trying to revert him to his days of skipping class and not putting effort into anything.) so he wasn't there. Takeru was on his own for this, but he already knew he was more than capable of handling it. He just missed the future, his present, where Kusanagi and Yusaku knew by now he could take care of himself.

"I can handle it." Takeru stood up. "Don't worry about me."

He dashed into the room Yusaku used to log into Vrains at Cafe Nagi. The second room Takeru usually used wasn't here, so this would do. He set his deck in his duel disk and logged in.

Soulburner, or the duelist not yet known as Soulburner, did a quick visual sweep of the area of Vrains around him.

"No sign of them here," he mumbled.

That determined, he took a quick second to see what kind of avatar Flame had made for him. He'd lost the fiery theme that Soulburner had going for him, which was good. His hair was mostly pushed back and out of his face, more like his present day self than his future self. His hair and clothes were full of greens and dark grays; much darker than Soulburner. In some was, the color scheme was a bit similar to the clothes Playmaker wore, but he looked different enough that no one would probably try to accuse him of being a fan or a fake.

"Nice job," he told Flame.

"Thank you," Flame responded. "Seems like they aren't too far away. Should be just ahead."

Soulburner ran forward. It only took him a couple of moments to find the members of Hanoi. Flame was right, they weren't too far away.

"You're not Playmaker," one of them sneered. "You don't have an Ignis or any Cyberse monsters for us to destroy, so why don't you scram? I'm not really in the mood to play."

"You might want to look again." Soulburner lifted the arm his his duel disk was on. "You're looking for Cyberse? I've got a deck full of them right here!"

Only Playmaker was supposed to have Cyberse monsters, but in that moment he didn't care. He needed to catch their attention, get them to duel him somehow. His monsters would be safe, he wouldn't let them to anything to them. He refused to alert the Knights to Flame and put him at risk, but...

Now that he was here, actually in front of Hanoi, Soulburner was starting to see red.

"Another duelist with Cyberse monsters?" the other Hanoi member asked. "Just who are you?"

"Who I am doesn't matter," Soulburner spat. "Hanoi took everything from me. And now I'm going to make you bastards pay!"

Soulburner was starting to see red. Because now that he was here, it was like he was six again, suffering for every duel he lost. Hearing that his parents looked for him every day he was missing. Learning they were in an accident while they searched.

His parents were gone because of them, and a decade later, he still hadn't really gotten his life back.

"Well, if it's a duel you want..." The first Knight spoke as both of them activated their duel disks. "If you have Cyberse monsters, I'll make an exception for you. You picked a fight at the wrong time, because you're outnumbered. You don't stand a chance."

"You should double check your math."

Soulburner did a double take. Playmaker was beside him now, his duel disk activated as well. When did Playmaker get here? Wasn't he at school?

"What are you doing here? I can take them on my own," Soulburner insisted.

"Class just ended." Playmaker spoke quietly, making sure no one but Soulburner heard him. "I'd be able to beat them both on my own as well. But this is a good opportunity to see if you're mor than just talk."

"Looks like your knight in shining armor has arrived, mystery Cyberse duelist!" the second Knight laughed. "Fine by me, we'll have a tag duel, then."

The duel began. Playmaker and Soulburner both started out strong, much stronger than either of the Hanoi members did. Soulburner made sure to leave his Ritual and Fusion monsters out of it, sticking to Link Summoning, since Vrains wasn't seeing a lot of other summoning methods during this time. He did his best to support Playmaker as well, bringing out his best monsters while helping Playmaker bring out his own best. With Decode Talker and Heatleo on the field, no one stood a chance against them.

After Decode Talker battled during his turn, Soulburner brought their enemies' life points to zero with an attack from Heatleo. Defeated, the Knights scrambled away from them in fear before logging out.

"You're better than you implied," Playmaker mused, giving Soulburner a thoughtful look. "That was...an enlightening duel."

"Enlightening?" Soulburner asked.

"We worked together well. You seem to know my deck and strategies well, though at times it almost seemed like you were helping me set up for something even better than I'm capable of now. Which must mean I'll work on my deck and become a better duelist."

Soulburner smiled. "Of course I know how you duel. You're Playmaker, you... We're in a team, in the future."

"For many reasons, I prefer to work alone," Playmaker stated. "Kusanagi's the obvious exception, his work and his help is invaluable. But... I don't think I'd mind taking on trouble in Vrains with a partner like you. You're good. And besides that..." Playmaker looked away. "Dueling on the same side as you...felt nice."

"I like working with you, too. It's probably the first thing in my life that's felt right in years."

Playmaker smiled.

\---

"I think we finally have it figured out," Kusanagi announced.

"Have what figured out?" Takeru sat up, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. It was late, he'd nearly fallen asleep in the truck.

"Between me, Yusaku, Ai, and Flame, I think we've got a way to send you back to the future," Kusanagi told him.

"Send us back..."

Would it be the exact time? Would the duel against Lightning still be going, would it be over? Would everyone be okay? He hoped he hadn't worried anyone, though depending on what time he arrived to, that would probably be impossible.

"All you have to do is log into Vrains, and the program we gave Flame should activate and take you back," Kusanagi told him.

"I already deleted your temporary avatar. You'll log in as Soulburner. Don't want to confuse anyone more than we already have, Flame added.

Well, there was only one thing for Takeru to do, wasn't there?

"Thank you, for everything," he told Kusanagi, Yusaku, and Ai. "You've helped me out so much. I promise I'll make it up to you in the future."

"Don't worry about it," Yusaku told him.

"You can make it up to us by starting up the Ai Fan Club!" Ai said, earning a glare and a mute from Yusaku.

"Safe travels," Kusanagi said.

Takeru smiled. In a way, he'd sort of miss these past versions of their group. It'd been interesting getting to know them all over again, even if he'd still known them for such a short time in the future. But he missed the future versions, the ones from his present, a lot more. Where Kusanagi was a bit more open, Ai was more honest, and Yusaku trusted him more, hung out with him more.

"Well, then... I'll see you all soon," Takeru said.

He logged into Vrains.

* * *

(Bonus Day)

Just in case it was a trap that Ai had been tricked into, Yusaku had insisted on going after Ai on his own.

If it was a trap, and something happened to him, Kusanagi, Takeru and Flame still needed to be there to fight. Someone needed to save Jin.

But he also said that if he was gone for too long, Takeru could follow after him. And it’d been much too long. They had no way of checking on Yusaku themselves, other than to go in. And as much as Takeru felt like he was walking into a trap himself, he was more worried about Yusaku than himself. He wanted to know that Yusaku and Ai were safe. Kusanagi agreed with him.

Takeru logged in, and as Soulburner, went after him.

“It’s not like you have to be so worried about him. He can take care of himself,” Flame teased.

“Shut up,” Soulburner told him.

What they found was a cheap imitation of Cyberse World. Enough effort into it to fool Ai, as long as he needed to be fooled, but clearly not the real deal. Even if Cyberse World weren’t still destroyed, the whole thing was made of cardboard. If Ai had any amount of sense in him, he shouldn’t have been fooled by this poor an effort. Though, the quality of this fake was only so low because it was the minimum needed to fool Ai... It was all a huge circle. Soulburner and Flame shook their heads sadly. 

Then the fake Cyberse World was set ablaze.

Flame doubted this was the doing of whoever was behind this. There must be a third party at play.

AIs flooded the fake world, and he wasn’t the only one dueling them, but Soulburner couldn’t go after Playmaker until he got through them; it was clear Playmaker wasn’t here. So he dueled as well, until every last one was defeated.

It was clear after that that it was the Knights of Hanoi who had arrived in a literal blaze of glory, and who had also dueled the other artificial intelligences. Soulburner wasn’t thrilled about that, but they weren’t his main concern right now. So he went with them to where Playmaker must’ve gone. A hole in the cardboard leading to some building. 

Soulburner ran in ahead of them, making his way through the halls as fast as possible. He couldn’t waste any time.

When he found Revolver, who looked like he’d just gotten there himself, he knew he found the right place. But Revolver was frozen solid, and when Soulburner reached him, he knew why.

(Ai refused to see things Lightning’s way. He was attached to his partner, attached to the idea of coexisting with humans. To Ai and Playmaker this wasn’t a bad thing, but to Windy and Lightning, it was a hindrance.)

(Ai may have been the wisest of the Ignis, but clearly there was no intelligence to be found in him. He couldn’t see the bigger picture. No, he  _refused_  to see it.)

(So with Ai refusing to come around and refusing to comply, Lightning and Windy had no choice but to break Ai down and rewrite him to do so. To force him to comply. Normally Playmaker and Ai wouldn’t let such a thing happen, but Lightning and Windy had already made sure they were unable to do anything about it.)

(Ai was remade, and Lightning and Windy liked him so much better this way.)

When Soulburner reached the room, the first thing he saw was Playmaker. And at first, he was glad. But something just didn’t seem right, and the more Soulburner looked at him, the more that feeling grew into horror.

Playmaker looked at him as he entered, but it was almost like his eyes were attracted to the movement than Playmaker was actually looking at him. His entire expression was blank. Playmaker wasn’t very expressive to begin with, but this was taking that to an entirely different level. This wasn’t an absence of emotion, it looked more like an absence of presence entirely. He held up the arm his duel disk was on for Ai; they’d reunited after all. Ai was standing on on Playmaker’s duel disk, but he appeared duller, partially muted. He stared at Soulburner and Flame as well, but perhaps the most off-putting part was Ai’s silence. He looked at them quietly.

For a moment, Soulburner’s gaze slid to look behind Playmaker. Windy was here, along with another Ignis, who Soulburner figured must be the Light Ignis. Windy had the same AI as before with him, but with the Light Ignis was someone that Soulburner heard Revolver quietly confirm as Jin Kusanagi. Kusanagi’s brother... He had the same expression as Playmaker. It almost looked like the Light Ignis was controlling Jin like a puppet.

Soulburner looked to Playmaker again. The similarity between him and Jin hit hard, and his stomach felt sick.

“Ah, the Fire Ignis. There you are,” the Light Ignis called out. “What was it that Ai called you? Flame?”

“What’s going on here? What’s wrong with Ai and Playmaker?” Flame demanded.

“I’d like to know, too,” Soulburner added, an edge to his voice, “but I don’t think I’ll like the answer.”

“And Soulburner, of course, following along like a lost puppy.” The Light Ignis placed a hand on his hip, looking at Flame. “I’ve simply made Ai see reason. He knows how humanity feels about us, so I helped him reach the same conclusion that I have: we need to strike first, and wipe them out.”

“Is this what your leadership means now?” Flame yelled. “If anyone disagrees with you, you’ll just force them to be obedient?”

So, it seemed like the Light Ignis had been their enemy all along. Or at least, he was making an enemy of them now. Soulburner wouldn’t be surprised if he’d destroyed Cyberse World himself for some reason.

“Ai was always the biggest problem of us, wasn’t he? A troublemaker, for sure.” The Light Ignis sighed. “I doubted he would see things the way I did, so I was prepared for that. To change his mind. I even took steps to prevent him and Playmaker from retaliating, but I can’t pull the same trick twice.” He tilted his head, gaze still fixed on Flame. “From the sounds of it, I won’t be able to persuade you with words, either. A shame. We’ll have to do this the hard way.”

Flame’s hands clenched into fists. “How could you do this to him?!”

“You’ll pay for what you’ve done!” Soulburner shouted.

“Take them down, Ai,” the Light Ignis ordered. “This rebellion won’t last much longer.”

Soulburner stared again at Playmaker, who now stood in front of him as an enemy.

He’d been lucky to get the chance to duel against Blue Angel and Go, two of the heroes who saved Vrains, his idols. He’d wanted the chance to duel against Playmaker, too, to see how he could compare. But not like this. 

Playmaker stiffly drew his hand, Ai looking over the cards they started out with. Soulburner did the same.

It felt like something in his chest was breaking. He and Yusaku were partners now, working together to solve what had happened to Cyberse World and Jin. They had each others’ backs, covering each other so they could figure this out. Takeru wanted to think Yusaku trusted him now, and he knew that Yusaku’s trust wasn’t easily won. He hated going against his friend like this. He could only imagine how Kusanagi felt, seeing both Jin and Yusaku like this.

Takeru hated seeing his friend like this, but he needed to focus. Right now, he had to stop thinking of Ai and Playmaker as his friends, and accept that for now, they were his enemies. If he couldn’t do that much, he couldn’t save them.

Right now, he needed to stop being Takeru Homura the way he acted in Den City. Polite and focused on helping his friends. His change in attitude had been for the better. He’d spent a decade pushing people out and letting intimidation and violence solve his problems, and he knew that wasn’t good for him or the people around him. He was trying to be better. Kiku would be proud. But right now, he couldn’t be that. He couldn’t be the person Takeru was striving to be.

Right now, he needed to be the Soulburner who called Go out for what he’d really become: an obedient, miserable dog.

Right now, he needed to become the Takeru who’d gone to save Kiku. The Takeru who wasn’t afraid to teach bullies a lesson or two. The Takeru who was willing to face his worst fears for the people who mattered most.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end of Vrains Rarepair Weeks for me. (I know this is going up a day late, and I apologize... I wasn't well enough to post this yesterday.) Thank you for reading, whether you kept coming back during the event or you're reading it weeks, months afterwards. I appreciate it a lot. And I hope you enjoyed. I had a lot of fun writing these, I like what I came up with.
> 
> If you haven't already, I highly recommend checking out other things people made for the event as well. Check out the collection this work is in! Check out the tumblr blog for the event! People wrote a lot of really good stuff, I've been reading a lot of it and I've been enjoying it a lot. This was a great event and it was really cool to see so many people make content for different ships. 
> 
> Thank you again! I hope everything goes well for you all, and may the heart of the cards be ever in your favor. If you're ever looking for me, I'll still be writing Yugioh content, so I'm sure you'll see me around.


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